Carbon Leaf "Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat" (Vanguard) Sounds like: Irish-infused electric/acoustic that's as much folk/roots as it is pop/rock. Grade: B
"Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat" marks Carbon Leaf's seventh album, and one has to wonder whether they've run out of things to say. While the album boasts the same style of music that made fans love them and intrigued listeners across the country, a listen through the album will reveal song after solid song, but nothing that particularly piques the listener's interest.
That is not to say that each song is weak or that the sometimes slightly cheesy and metaphorical lyrics are poorly written. Most are actually individually quite good. However, stacked one after another the songs tend to sound very similar until the hooks catch the audience's ears upon later listens.
Overall, the record is a good seventh effort. The best tracks, "Block of Wood" and "The War Was in Color," will stick with the listener, and hopefully those tracks will bring him back to reveal the subtle shining moments the album has to offer.
-MADALYN WASILCZUK
Mindy Smith "Long-Island Shores" (Vanguard) Sounds Like: Bad Lilith Fair rip-offs sans the female empowerment. Grade: D
Mindy Smith's sophomore release is appropriately quite sophomoric. "Long-Island Shores" lacks the emotion and raw sound that could be heard in Smith's 2004 debut "Come to Jesus." Many tracks on the album end up sounding like a mixture of bad Lilith Fair rip-offs and Michelle Branch without the pop charm.
The title track to "Long-Island Shores" is a ballad describing Smith's homecoming to Long Island. The song seems almost like a betrayal for the Nashville-based artist who definitely began her career with a much more country and folk sound.
Some tracks have redeeming qualities, like "Tennessee" and "Peace of Mind." These are the more simplistic tracks on an album that consists only of Smith singing and playing acoustic guitar.
The rest of the album seems to be clouded by over-production. All the bass, keyboards and electric guitar take away from the simplistic but real sound that seems to define Smith's previous music. Looks like Mindy fell into the ever-so-common sophomore slump.
-NATALIE HARRIS
Casket Salesmen "Sleeping Giants" (Longhair Illuminati) Sounds Like: A poor man's Mars Volta. Grade: C -
Out of California's Inland Empire comes Casket Salesmen, the new band formed by former A Static Lullaby members Phil Pirrone and Nathan Linderman. With the release of their new album, "Sleeping Giants," Pirrone and Linderman hope to eliminate any preconceptions one might have about their new band. Unfortunately, the band, while sounding nothing like A Static Lullaby, mirrors a watered-down Mars Volta, complete with cheesy Santana guitar wails and nonsensical lyrics about snakes and brothers.
One example is the nonsensically titled "Dr. Jesus," which speaks about things like wolves, charlatans and the ubiquitous albatross. Other songs that might make one spew up their milk in laughter include the "Anaheimlich Maneuver" and "Art Sandwich." The songs are unoriginal and the lyrics are trite, which make for an altogether mediocre album.
If there are any high points for the band, it exists within the musicianship. The instrument work is actually very good and the main problem that plagues them is the fact that while exceptional and catchy, the songs sound exactly the same as one another.
After all is said and done, Casket Salesmen has offered up a very valiant tribute to the Mars Volta, but a mediocre debut album.
-CHRIS MORENO
Hotspur "Beta" (self-released) Sounds like: Socratic with a heavy dose of dance music. Grade: B
D.C.-based Hotspur have taken a stale genre and infused it with some new life on their first full length album "Beta." These alternative rockers added hints of dance rock, pop and punk into an already catchy genre.
With just one guitar, Hotspur are able to rock a lot harder than most radio-ready bands of today. The addition of a piano gives the music a whole new vibe as keyboardist Dave Trichter covers many interludes, relieving listeners of the pulsing rhythm of the bass ad guitar. Joe Mach's vocals are filled with pop hooks, making him very easy to listen to.
Tracks like "Young and Reckless" and "Her Majesty" cover the heavy-hitting punk side of Hotspur while "Criminal" and "5th of July" cover the dance rock and synthesizer-driven side of the band.
Hotspur has clearly established their competency in pop music with "Beta" for those who are fans of radio rock.
-JOEL BUSH
Lansing-Dreiden "The Dividing Island" (Kemado Records) Sounds Like: An interesting pastiche owing as much to '60s psych-pop as to '80s keyboard pop. Grade: C+
Lansing-Dreiden has worked hard to build up a mystique. They don't release their names, they do all the writing, recording and producing of their albums on their own and their latest album is packaged in a stark black and white box that doesn't even list the tracks on the outside. They also have an unexplainable fascination with ancient Greek statuary.
This is all speculation, but here's one way their story might go. Once upon a time, all Lansing-Dreiden really wanted to do was write "Time of the Season" by the Zombies. They slathered reverb on everything, wrote in spooky (but simple) harmonies in most of their songs, searching for that ethereal yet immediate sound the Zombies pioneered in the '60s. And then they heard the Breakfast Club soundtrack.
"Dividing Island" is an attempt to reconcile their tastes. There are times, like in the song "Two Extremes," when you can totally picture Molly Ringwald wiping tears from rosy cheeks. Sustained synthesizer, check. Echo effect on the vocals, check. Spoken word parts buried underneath the chorus? Ok, it's a little campy.
The weirdest moment of the record is the last song, when the band tries to add one more piece to their borrowed music quilt: thrash metal. As much as this band can do - let's face it: They don't "rock." It's a reminder that the band isn't innovative as much as brazen borrowers and re-assemblers.
-CHRIS DeWITT
